Device for simultaneously displaying the front and rear of coins

ABSTRACT

A device for simultaneous display of the front and rear sides of one or more coins comprising a base member having a mirror substantially inclined from the base member and means for holding the coins above the base member and parallel to said mirror. The means for holding the coins preferably are clip members which engage a small portion of the rim of the coins and which fit into a groove in the base member, the groove being parallel to and spaced from the mirror.

United States Patent [191 Titoff DEVICE FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY DISPLAYING THE FRONT AND REAR OF COINS [76] Inventor: Victor Titoff, 630 8th Ave., San

Francisco, Calif.

[22] Filed: May 22, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 255,343

[52] US. Cl 356/244, 206/8, 350/288, 356/163, 356/256 [51] Int. Cl. GOln 21/16, GO2b 27/32 [58] Field of Search 356/244, 163, 256; 350/243, 299, 28 8; 206/.8, .81, .82, .83, .84

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 9/1967 Chuy 350/288 UX 6/1962 3,040,617 Rankin 350/243 Dec. 4, 1973 3,425,538 2/1969 Lott, Jr 206/.83 3,199,666 8/1965 Burdick 206/.82 3,155,236 11/1964 Reno 206/.82

Primary ExaminerRona1d L. Wibert Assistant E xaminer-V. P. McGraw Att0rney-Carlisle M. Moore et al.

[ 5 7 ABSTRACT A device for simultaneous display of the front and rear sides of one or more coins comprising a base member having a mirror substantially inclined from the base member and means for holding the coins above the base member and parallel to said mirror. The means for holding the coins preferably are clip members which engage a small portion of the rim of the coins and which fit into a groove in the base member, the groove being parallel to and spaced from the mirror.

7 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures DEVICE FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY DISPLAYING THE FRONT AND REAR OF COINS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to devices used to display coins at numismatic exhibitions. There are numerous ways now in use to support coins for display but each has objectionable features. For example, the recent US. Pat. No. 3,425 ,538 discloses a coin holder which is designed to grip and hold a coin for display purposes. However, only one side of the coin may be seen from outside of the case. If the viewer wishes to examine the entire coin he must take the holder and coin from the showcase. In most instances this is undesirable, since a guard must be present to ensure return of the coin. Even in those instances wherein removal is permitted, the reverse side cannot be easily examined without removal of the coin from the holder, since there is considerable holder structure in back of the coin.

The U.S. Pat. No. 3,425,538 structure also has a shortcoming in that it is difficult to use a single display device to display a plurality of coins of different diameters and thicknesses, since each holder is designed for a particular thickness of coin. A holder could be elongated so that a number of coins of the same size could be displayed. However, if they are different thicknesses, then the thickest coins would be firmly gripped, whereas the thinner ones would not.

Another coin display drawback exemplified by the US. Pat. No. 3,425,538 is thata substantial area of the front face of the coin is covered by the material from which the holder is made. Even though it is made of transparent plastic, the optical quality of plastic is none too good and plastic is quite susceptible to surface scratches which would further impair visibility.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention seeks to overcome the deficiencies of existing coin display devices by providing a device which holds a coin so that a maximum portion of both sides is completely exposed to view, which displays both sides of a coin, and which is adaptable to display a single coin of any standard diameter or-thickness, or to display a plurality of coins of the same or different sizes.

In general, these objects are achieved by the provision of a base member having a downwardly sloping rear surface which has parallel grooves along and near the top and bottom of the sloping surface. A mirror is mounted in the bottom groove so that it is substantially inclined from the sloping surface.

A clear plastic clip member is mounted in the upper groove to grip only a small portion of the rim of the coin and hold it parallel to the mirror. By this arrangement the front face of the coin is presented to the viewer for direct view. The rear face of the coin is visible to the viewer by reflection without movement of the viewer from one spot to another.

The clip members are quite inexpensive and a plurality of them can be provided for different-size coins. All clip members are sized to fit in the upper slot and be held frictionally thereby, and differ only in the dimensions of the arm members with grip the coin. Thus, for any given coin, an appropriate clip member is chosen to fit the coin and the coin and clip are inserted into the upper slot of the base member. As is apparent, a single coin or plurality of coins may be displayed.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent in the course of the following detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings, forming a part of this application and in which like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout the same,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a coin display device constructed in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is an end view, in elevation of the coin display device;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3-3 of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3, and at right angles thereto illustrating the dimensioning of the clip member arms relative to a coin to be held thereby;

FIG. 5 is a view, as FIG. 4, showing the coin held in the clip member;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of another form of coinholder which may be used in the coin display device.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIGS. 1 through 5, wherein a preferred embodiment of the invention is shown, the coin display device 10 comprises a base member 11, preferably formed of clear plastic, having a downwardly and rearwardly sloping rear-surface 12 and a downwardly and forwardly sloping front surface 13. The angle between the rear and front surfaces 12 and 13 is not critical and may vary, depending upon the height at which the display device is to be used. Generally, the higher the display device is from the floor the less the angle of the rear surface 12 should be for convenient viewing.

The rear leg 15 of the base member has a groove 16 formed into the rear surface 12 near the bottom of the surface which extends the full length of the base member. A second groove 17 is formed into the rear surface near the upper end thereof which also extends the length of the base member parallel to groove 16. The front leg 18 of the base member has a reversely directed lip 19 at the bottom end of the front surface 13 to form a slot 20 between the front surface and lip into which one or more information-bearing cards 21 may be inserted. Preferably the lip 21 is proportioned so that the distance from the upper end 22 of the lip to the juncture 23 of the upper ends of the front and rear surfaces is the same as or slightly less than the distance from the underneath apex 24 of the legs 15 and 18 to the lower corner 25 of the front leg 18. With this dimensioning a plurality of base members 11 may be stacked upon one another when not in use.

A mirror 26 is mounted on the rear leg of the base member with the lower edge of the mirror being received in groove 16. The mirror has a reflecting surface which is at a substantial inclination from the rear surface 12. Preferably the reflecting surface of the mirror is parallel to the front surface 13.

One or more clip members 30 may be used to support coins 31 above the rear surface 12 near the uppr end thereof. As shown in enlarged detail in FIGS. 3+5, a clip member 30 comprises a generally U-shaped member, as seen from its side, preferably formed of clear plastic having a central portion 32 adapted to be received in groove 17 and parallel arms 33 and 34 which extend upwardly from the central portion. Preferably the central portion'of the clip member is enlarged and the groove 17 has a dovetail shape so that the clip cannot be inserted into or removed from the groove except at the ends of the groove. The engagement of the upper corners 35 and 36 of groove 17 with the arms 33 and 34 serves to restrain separation of the arms so that a coin held therebetween will be gripped firmly. As is seen in FIG. 3, the upper ends 35 of arms 33 and 34 are concavely curved. The radius of curvature is preferably substantially the same as that of the coin 31 to be held thereby so that the arms will cover the least amount of the coin when the rim of the coin is gripped between the arms. As is seen in FIG. 4, the spacing between the arms 33 and 34 is somewhat less than the thickness of the coin. The plastic material chosen for use should have sufficient resiliency so that the arms can be sprung apart to receive the rim of the coin therebetween, as shown in FIG. 5, and to grip the coin firmly therebetween. If desired, the extreme ends of the arms can be outwardly directed to facilitate the insertion of a coin into the clip. The width of the clip member, FIG. 3, is not critical except that the clip should be sufficiently wide to provide enough engagement along the rim of the coin so that it will not tilt in the clip after insertion thereinto.

As is apparent, a plurality of clip members 30 can be provided, each having the same external size of the central portion thereof, so that they can be inserted into and held by groove 17, but with different widths, different spacing between the free ends of the arms and different radii of concavity of the ends of the arms so that different clips can receive and support different diameters and thicknesses of coins therebetween. This enables the same base member to be used to display a plurality of coins of different dimensions.

In use of the display device, the user decides which coins he wishes to display, mounts the coins in appropriate clips and inserts the clips and coins into an end of the groove 17. Since the groove extends the full length of the device, the individual coins may be positioned anywhere along the length of the groove so that any desired spacing between the coins may be had. With the mirror 26 in place, and with appropriate legend cards 21 inserted, the display device can then be put into a glass-fronted or glass-topped showcase. A person viewing the display can see the entire coin easily and without movement on his part, since the front of the coin will be directly viewed and the rear of the coin will be reflected to him by the mirror 26. The only portions of the coin which will be obscured will be the small rim areas gripped by the clear plastic arms. In the event that a clip member is scratched, it can simply be discarded and a new clip used with the same base member. Surface scratches on the base member do not affect visibility of the coins.

Although the base member 11 could be made of opaque material, it is preferable that it be made of a transparent or translucent light-transmitting material so that if the display device is used in a showcase having a translucent glass surface 40, illuminated from below, the light will pass through the base member 11 to illuminate the coins on display.

Although the display device is illustrated as having a length to display a plurality of coins, it is obvious that a short base member can be used for the display of a single coin. Similarly, it can have a length greater than that illustrated so that a greater number of coins can be displayed.

FIG. 6 illustrates a presently available coin-holder which is of square shape with a central opening 51 designated to receive and support a coin therein. This type of holder, while providing good visibility of the front and rear surfaces of a coin, has a deficiency in that the side of the coin is obscured, thus making it difficult to observe the milling or lettering that may be around the coin. However, if it is desired to use such coinholders in the present display device then all that need be done is to design the upper groove 17 so that it will accept and support an edge of coin-holder 50. Preferably the clips 30 would be sized to such groove 17 so that clips 30 or holders 50 could be used, as desired, with the same base member.

It may also be desired to use the display device to display currency. In such case a single piece of currency would be mounted in a clear plastic holder and inserted into the groove 17 so that it stands up parallel to the mirror 26. The viewer would then be able to see both sides of the currency. For such use, a mirror of greater height may be required, and the slope of the rear sur face relative to the supporting surface may need to be changed to provide best visibility of the rear side of the currency.

In many instances it may be desired to mount a plurality of display devices in a traveling showcase before taking the showcase to an exhibition. In such case one or more holes 55 can be formed through the base member, so that screws can be used for semi-permanent attachment of the base member to the supporting surface in the showcase. Preferably the holes 55 are located at the bottom of the lower groove 16 so that the mirror will conceal the screw heads.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A coin display device comprising:

a. a base member having a rearwardly and downwardly sloping surface and a forward surface extending forwardly of said rearward sloping surface,

b. a mirror mounted on and near to the lower end of said sloping surface, said mirror having a reflecting surface substantially inclined from said sloping surface,

0. means removably secured to said base member for holding a coin above and near the upper end of said sloping surface with a face of said coin being parallel to said reflecting surface of said mirror.

2. A coin display device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said forward surface slopes downwardly from the upper end of said rearwardly sloping surface, said forward surface being generally parallel to said reflecting surface of said mirror.

3. A coin display device as set forth in claim 2 and further including means on said base member for holding an information card flat against said forward surface. i

4. A coin display device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said means (c) comprises:

a groove formed in the rearwardly sloping surface of said base member, said groove being near the upper end of said sloping surface and parallel to the reflecting surface of said mirror,

a U-shaped clip of transparent material and having its central portion adapted to fit in and frictionally engage the walls of said groove, said clip having resilient arms extending upwardly from the central portion to grip the rim of a coin therebetween, said arms being concave at their ends with the radius of member, wherein a plurality of said U-shaped clips are disposed in and spaced along said groove, and wherein said mirror extends the width of said base member.

7. A coin display device as set forth in claim 6, and

further including means associated with said forwardlyv sloping surface for holding an information card thereon and in proximity to each of said clips. 

1. A coin display device comprising: a. a base member having a rearwardly and downwardly sloping surface and a forward surface extending forwardly of said rearward sloping surface, b. a mirror mounted on and near to the lower end of said sloping surface, said mirror having a reflecting surface substantially inclined from said sloping surface, c. means removably secured to said base member for holding a coin above and near the upper end of said sloping surface with a face of said coin being parallel to said reflecting surface of said mirror.
 2. A coin display device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said forward surface slopes downwardly from the upper end of said rearwardly sloping surface, said forward surface being generally parallel to said reflecting surface of said mirror.
 3. A coin display device as set forth in claim 2 and further including means on said base member for holding an information card flat against said forward surface.
 4. A coin display device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said means (c) comprises: a groove formed in the rearwardly sloping surface of said base member, said groove being near the upper end of said sloping surface and parallel to the reflecting surface of said mirror, a U-shaped clip of transparent material and having its central portion adapted to fit in and frictionally engage the walls of said groove, said clip having resilient arms extending upwardly from the central portion to grip the rim of a coin therebetween, said arms being concave at their ends with the radius of concavity being substantially the same as the radius of the coin to be gripped by said clip.
 5. A coin device as set forth in claim 4 wherein said base member has a groove formed in said rearwardly sloping surface near the bottom thereof and the bottom edge of said mirror is removably received within said last-named groove.
 6. A coin display device as set forth in claim 4, wherein said groove extends the width of said base member, wherein a plurality of said U-shaped clips are disposed in and spaced along said groove, and wherein said mirror extends the width of said base member.
 7. A coin display device as set forth in claim 6, and further including means associated with said forwardly sloping surface for holding an information card thereon and in proximity to each of said clips. 